AUV Based Mine Hunting Demonstrated from MCMV

The Norwegian long-term program for military use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) reached an important milestone in December 2001, when the concept of AUV based mine hunting and rapid environmental assessment (REA) was demonstrated from the Oksøy class mine hunting vessel KNM Karmøy. Within one day, the complete concept of AUV based mine hunting was demonstrated: The HUGIN AUV was programmed and launched from the MCMV, performed an acoustically controlled survey, proceeded to carry out an autonomous mine reconnaissance survey in a forward area with mine-like bottom objects, and returned to the MCMV for recovery. Through automatic mine detection and classification algorithms, a list of mine-like contacts was established, and data from these contacts was evaluated manually. The end result was that four out of four mine dummies were detected, classified, and accurately positioned on each of the demonstrations. Four months after the successful demonstrations, the Royal Norwegian Navy approved a project to develop the HUGIN Mine Reconnaissance System (HMRS), the first HUGIN system developed specifically for military applications. Current plans are to introduce the first HMRS vehicle to the Norwegian MCM forces in 2004/05.